VietNamNet Bridge
– The new UK Ambassador to Vietnam Antony
Stokes told the local press on November 9 that he set three priorities for his
term in Vietnam
to promote the strategic partnership between the two countries.

One of the priorities is bringing the two-way trade revenues
to US$3 billion, the Ambassador said in the first meeting with Vietnamese
journalists. The figure is around $2 billion at present.

He said there are at least two grounds for turning this goal
into reality. Firstly, the HCM City-London air route will be launched in late
2011. Secondly, the European Union and Vietnam are going to negotiate the
Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

The Ambassador said that it is difficult to ensure that the
goals will be realized but he was very optimistic.

The HCM City-London air route is expected to promote trade,
investment, education and tourism cooperation between the two countries. Stokes
said that the negotiation is underway to fix suitable landing sites for Vietnam
Airlines’ aircrafts at the UK’s
airports and to complete necessary formalities.

The UK-Vietnam Joint Committee for Economics-Trade recently
met in London.
The two sides agreed to improve the accessibility to the Vietnamese market for UK companies and Vietnam committed to better
implement its WTO commitments.

Apart from trade, the Ambassador expected that the UK will become Vietnam’s leading education
partner. Around 2000 Vietnamese students go to the UK annually. The UK hopes to
increase the number to 3000 a year. The UK
will try to early complete its project to build an international standard
university in Da Nang.

Development cooperation is the third priority, Stokes said.
Accordingly, the UK will
continue granting aid to Vietnam
to assist the country in its implemention of the Millennium Goals, to promote
trade growth, to improve state governance and to cope with climate chagne. The UK also wants to promote dialogue with Vietnam on
economic reforms and human rights.

Vietnam
and the UK
have upgraded their ties to strategic partnership, with seven key cooperation
fields: politics-diplomacy, global and regional issues, trade-investment,
development cooperation, economics-society, education-training,
security-defence and people’s exchange.